Chicken tenders

As newbies to chicken tending Steve and I are not always exactly sure what to do next. We do have a bit of a routine established. First up in the morning, he opens the coop and refills their water and feed containers. One of us will shut them in at night. During the day we visit and bring them kitchen scraps and an occasional handful of scratch (chicken candy). I'm unclear how often I'm supposed to scrub out their coop and rake the pen. But it clearly needed doing this week so I made it the highest priority for today.

Everything was going along fine, chickens were pecking at the ground, I was hosing out their mess, birds were chirping, the sky was blue -- and then I went out to retrieve their food so I could refill the thingy that holds the feed. Rocket (of course) was the first one to catch on that the fence was slightly open so she jumped out. I tried to hold Rosie back -- Rosie is always second -- but, with the flock leader out Rosie was driven to follow, so out she jumped. The parade had started - then Rachel, Raquel, Rafaela. Rebella, who rebels, had to go through her do-I-have-tos, but by then I was holding the space and waiting for her to join the flock.

I didn't care that they went immediately to the string beans. After those days of 105º and above, that little crop was a loss and I was happy to see the chickens enjoying the remains. And it was a lot easier to rake and refurbish their digs with them outside. So I cleaned, they nibbled.

Corralling them for the return trip was difficult, but once I caught Rocket and tossed her over the fence, the others wanted to be inside too. They flew in and around their coop, checked out the fresh chips and discussed it among themselves. They will be entertained all day now that they have a new nest to create, had a field trip to the bean patch and the weather is suitable. Hopefully, I did it all right...